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Charles Band
| image = | birth name = Charles Robert Band | known aliases = Carlo Bokino Robert Talbot | gender = | mediums = | roles = | date of birth = December 27th, 1951 | place of birth = Los Angeles, California | date of death = | place of death = | notable works = Evil Bong Gingerdead Man Puppet Master Subspecies | first = Mansion of the Doomed (1976) }} Charles Robert Band is a director, writer, and producer of horror films. He is the son of director-producer Albert Band, and brother of the composer Richard Band. With his former wife Meda, he has two children, Alex Band, the vocalist for band The Calling, and Taryn Band. He has two sons with his former wife Debra Dion, Harlan and Zalman. Charles' grandfather was the artist Max Band. Career Charles Band's most famous films are those in the Puppet Master franchise, made by his Full Moon Entertainment company. Before he had Full Moon Entertainment, his earlier (and now defunct) company Empire Pictures made films like Ghoulies and Re-Animator. Starting in the 1970s, Band formed Charles Band Productions. Dissatisfied with distributors' handling of his films, Band created Empire Pictures in the early 1980s. Through Empire, he could produce and distribute his films ensuring proper distribution and return on profits. Empire entered the video market with Wizard Video during this time, which also released films by others in addition to Empire product. At the height of its run, Empire produced twelve theatrical and twelve direct-to-video films a year. Wizard would also produce two games for the Atari 2600 in 1982: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween both based on the films of the same names and both quite controversial at the time for the levels of violence. Citing the fall of the Italian lira, the Rome based Empire closed its doors in the late eighties and Band returned to the States. There he formed Full Moon Productions which was quickly changed to Full Moon Entertainment and later became Full Moon Studios and Full Moon Features before settling on the current Full Moon Pictures. During this time, Band produced exclusively with Paramount Home Video before parting ways with that company in 1994. Since then, Full Moon has been an independent company, producing and distributing solely for the home market. Notable side companies have included Moonbeam Entertainment, Filmonsters, Action Xtreme and Pulsepounders all of which produced films aimed at kids and tweens as well as Torchlight Entertainment and Surrender Cinema which produced soft core films for the adult market. In addition, Monster Island Entertainment produced man in a rubber suit monster movies, Alchemy Entertainment later Big City Pictures created urban horror, and Pulp Fantasy Productions specialized in non Full Moon type horror. For a short time in the early 2000s, Full Moon became Shadow Entertainment when Band felt the company's product had strayed too far from the brand that he had created. During this time, many of the films were produced by J.R. Bookwalter's Tempe Entertainment. Since 2004, Band has taken a more active hand in the company, producing and directing almost every film released. Also in 2004, the Wizard Video line was reintroduced. For a short time, fans could buy a line of toys based on characters from the films such as Shrieker, Radu from Subspecies and the Puppet Master puppets as well. Branded Full Moon Toys, this line lasted a couple of years. More recently, the Monster Bra line has been created, specializing in gag brassieres. CD soundtracks have also been released through the Full Moon Records line including many works by Band's brother Richard Band and comics based on Dollman, Puppet Master, Subspecies and Trancers were released through Eternity Comics. Body of work Incomplete Film Notes & Trivia * Son of director/producer Albert Band. * His brother is composer Richard Band. * Charles Band made a cameo appearance in the 1986 film Troll (which he co-produced) along with his mother and father, Jacquelyn and Albert Band as well as his brother Richard and then-wife Debra Dion. External Links * * Charles Band at Wikipedia References Category:Producers Category:Directors Category:Executive producers Category:Writers Category:Actors Category:1951 births